Four UK universities have dominated the top five of the latest QS ranking. Claiming the top spot is Massachusetts Institute of technology followed by England’s leaders Imperial and Cambridge as equal second.
Harvard is in fourth place this year followed by Oxford and University of College London in joint fifth place. Stanford, Caltech, Princeton and Yale of the US also made it to the top 10.
Professor Alice Gast, Imperial's new president of Imperial College and a leading chemical engineer, said: "These rankings support what our students, alumni, staff, friends and collaborators know, that Imperial is one of the world's great universities. Imperial has a rare ability to turn outstanding research into discoveries that have a real impact on the world."
Ben Sowter, head of research at QS, said the top 10 had excellent academic reputations, graduate recruitment, staff-student ratios and international reach for faculty and students. "The performance of Imperial in citations per faculty has helped it become the biggest climber in the top 10, leapfrogging Harvard, UCL and Oxford to rank second equal in the world, tied with Cambridge.”
The UK universities in the top 100 are: Cambridge (2), Imperial (2), Oxford (5), UCL (5), KCL (16), Edinburgh (17), Bristol (29), Manchester (30), Glasgow (55), Warwick (61), Birmingham (64), Sheffield (69), LSE (71), Nottingham (77), St Andrews (88), Durham (92), Southampton (94), Leeds (97) and Queen Mary, University of London (98).
What are the 100 best universities in the world?
| Rank 2014 | Rank 2013 | Institution | Country | Overall score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 100 |
| 2= | 3 | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 99.4 |
| 2= | 4 | Imperial College London | United Kingdom | 99.4 |
| 4 | 2 | Harvard University | United States | 99.3 |
| 5= | 6 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 99.2 |
| 5= | 4 | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 99.2 |
| 7 | 7 | Stanford University | United States | 98.3 |
| 8 | 10= | California Institute of Technology (Caltech) | United States | 97.1 |
| 9 | 10= | Princeton University | United States | 96.6 |
| 10 | 8 | Yale University | United States | 96.5 |
| 11 | 9 | University of Chicago | United States | 95.5 |
| 12 | 12 | ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) | Switzerland | 95.3 |
| 13 | 13 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 94.5 |
| 14= | 14 | Columbia University | United States | 94.1 |
| 14= | 16 | Johns Hopkins University | United States | 94.1 |
| 16 | 19= | King's College London (KCL) | United Kingdom | 92.9 |
| 17= | 17= | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 92.8 |
| 17= | 19= | Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Switzerland | 92.8 |
| 19 | 15 | Cornell University | United States | 92.6 |
| 20 | 17= | University of Toronto | Canada | 92.4 |
| 21 | 21 | McGill University | Canada | 91.5 |
| 22 | 24 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 91.1 |
| 23 | 22 | University of Michigan | United States | 90.3 |
| 24 | 28 | Ecole normale supérieure, Paris | France | 90.2 |
| 25= | 27 | Australian National University | Australia | 89.7 |
| 25= | 23 | Duke University | United States | 89.7 |
| 27 | 25 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 89.5 |
| 28 | 26 | University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 88.8 |
| 29 | 30 | University of Bristol | United Kingdom | 88.5 |
| 30 | 33 | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 86.9 |
| 31= | 32 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 86.7 |
| 31= | 35 | Seoul National University | Korea, South | 86.7 |
| 33 | 31 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 86.5 |
| 34 | 29 | Northwestern University | United States | 86 |
| 35 | 41= | Ecole Polytechnique | France | 85 |
| 36 | 35= | Kyoto University | Japan | 84.7 |
| 37= | 40 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 84.3 |
| 37= | 38 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 84.3 |
| 39 | 41= | Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Singapore | 84 |
| 40 | 34 | The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | Hong Kong | 83.3 |
| 41= | 44 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 82.5 |
| 41= | 37 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | United States | 82.5 |
| 43= | 49 | University of British Columbia | Canada | 82.4 |
| 43= | 43 | The University of Queensland | Australia | 82.4 |
| 45 | 45 | University of Copenhagen | Denmark | 82 |
| 46 | 39 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 81.9 |
| 47 | 48 | Tsinghua University | China | 81.3 |
| 48 | 52 | The University of New South Wales | Australia | 81.2 |
| 49 | 50 | Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Germany | 81.1 |
| 50 | 58 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 80.5 |
| 51 | 60 | KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology | Korea, South | 79.9 |
| 52= | 65 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | Germany | 79.8 |
| 52= | 47 | Brown University | United States | 79.8 |
| 54 | 53 | Technische Universität München | Germany | 79.7 |
| 55= | 55 | Osaka University | Japan | 79.6 |
| 55= | 51 | University of Glasgow | United Kingdom | 79.6 |
| 57= | 46 | Peking University | China | 78.8 |
| 57= | 78 | University of Zurich | Switzerland | 78.8 |
| 59 | 63 | University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | United States | 78.6 |
| 60 | 67 | Lund University | Sweden | 78.3 |
| 61 | 64 | The University of Warwick | United Kingdom | 78.1 |
| 62 | 54 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | United States | 77.5 |
| 63 | 56 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States | 76.9 |
| 64 | 62 | University of Birmingham | United Kingdom | 76.7 |
| 65= | 59 | University of Washington | United States | 76.5 |
| 65= | 57 | Carnegie Mellon University | United States | 76.5 |
| 67 | 69 | University of Helsinki | Finland | 76.4 |
| 68 | 66 | Tokyo Institute of Technology | Japan | 76.3 |
| 69 | 71= | The University of Sheffield | United Kingdom | 75.7 |
| 70 | 69= | Monash University | Australia | 75.5 |
| 71= | 88 | Fudan University | China | 75.3 |
| 71= | 68 | London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) | United Kingdom | 75.3 |
| 71= | 75= | Tohoku University | Japan | 75.3 |
| 71= | 61 | Trinity College Dublin | Ireland | 75.3 |
| 75 | 74 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 75.2 |
| 76 | 82 | National Taiwan University (NTU) | Taiwan | 75.1 |
| 77 | 75= | The University of Nottingham | United Kingdom | 74.9 |
| 78 | 79= | Boston University | United States | 74.8 |
| 79 | 71= | University of Texas at Austin | United States | 74.6 |
| 80 | 81 | Utrecht University | Netherlands | 74.5 |
| 81 | 79= | Uppsala University | Sweden | 74.2 |
| 82 | 77 | KU Leuven | Belgium | 74.1 |
| 83 | 92= | Université de Montréal | Canada | 73.6 |
| 84 | 96 | University of Alberta | Canada | 73.3 |
| 85 | 71= | University of Geneva | Switzerland | 73.1 |
| 86= | 95 | Delft University of Technology | Netherlands | 72.9 |
| 86= | 107= | Pohang University of Science And Technology (POSTECH) | Korea, South | 72.9 |
| 88 | 83 | University of St Andrews | United Kingdom | 72.7 |
| 89 | 84 | The University of Western Australia | Australia | 72.6 |
| 90= | 97= | University of Groningen | Netherlands | 72.1 |
| 90= | 92= | Erasmus University Rotterdam | Netherlands | 72.1 |
| 92= | 94 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 72 |
| 92= | 90 | Durham University | United Kingdom | 72 |
| 94 | 86= | University of Southampton | United Kingdom | 71.9 |
| 95 | 85 | University of California, Davis | United States | 71.7 |
| 96 | 91 | Aarhus University | Denmark | 71.6 |
| 97 | 97= | University of Leeds | United Kingdom | 71.3 |
| 98 | 115 | Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) | United Kingdom | 71.2 |
| 99 | 86= | Washington University in St. Louis | United States | 70.8 |
| 100 | 104= | The University of Adelaide | Australia | 70.5 |